True grit

WATCHING RTÉ TV I am still puzzled as to who is responsible for gritting the footpaths as ministers and councillors batted responsibility back and forth.Can a Sinn Féin councillor explain (a) who is responsible for making footpaths safe for all pedestrians (including children and older people) and (b) why are the authorities so inept at dealing with cold weather snaps. It is Ireland, after all.NICOLE SIMPSON,Dublin

Explosive scenario

SO the Slovakian Secret Service planted explosives on an unsuspecting air traveller as a security test but managed to lose track of their trick and their guinea pig as he sauntered through the Nothing to Declare channel at Dublin Airport, oblivious to the danger he’d been put in until the Garda kicked his door in.Makes you wonder what would have happened if the victim had chosen to use his case, laden with traces of explosives, to fly on to another destination. Would more alert police believe his story or would it be shades of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four all over again?STEPHEN OLIVER,London

A real news story

With all the coverage of celebrity news and spin of the last few weeks one big story has been ignored by the mainstream media. For the whole month of December a convoy of hundreds of ordinary men and women has been travelling to Gaza to break the siege imposed by Israel on the 1.5 million people living there. The people on the convoy have raised their own money, bought urgently needed medical supplies and food, and put their lives on hold to travel across 12 countries to stand with the Palestinian people. The Egyptian Government has delayed them, turned them back, detained them and last night assaulted and arrested them, but as I write they hope to be in Palestine in a matter of hours.Theirs is an act of genuine heroism and I would like to especially commend the Irish activists on the trip. I would urge people to log on to www.vivapalestina.org and to donate money to support the cause. And next time a convoy is put together it would be marvellous to see Sinn Féin sponsoring a truck or an ambulance to take part in it.COLM McKENNA,Laois